Enhanced mechanical strength and texture of (Ba,K)Fe2As2 Cu/Ag composite sheathed tapes with Nb barrier layer

Iron-based superconductors with ultra-high upper critical fields and low anisotropy have attracted much attention for superconducting mechanisms and high-field applications. In practical applications, improving the mechanical strength and heat treatment temperature of superconducting tapes is of great significance for the improvement of transport current as well as stability. In this paper, (Ba, K)Fe2As2(Ba-122) superconducting tapes with Cu/Nb/Ag composite sheaths were successfully fabricated using a pre-composite process, which provides a feasible method for the fabrication of high-strength superconducting wires and tapes. It is shown that Cu/Nb/Ag composite sheathed tapes can be sintered at 880 °C, and tapes sintered at 880 °C have the highest transport properties as well as excellent superconductivity of the superconducting cores, as demonstrated by a series of characterizations. In addition, other superconducting properties of the tapes sintered at 880 °C, including grain orientation, flux pinning, upper critical field and irreversible field, were also studied. It was found that none of the three sheaths fractured after sintering and the superconducting core had a high c-axis texture and densities. The high mechanical strength of the Cu/Nb/Ag composite sheathed tape was also demonstrated by comparative tensile experiments. The results indicate that the low-cost Ba-122 tapes with Cu/Nb/Ag composite sheaths hold great promise for future practical applications.